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A huge thanks to our sponsor The Impact Competition. They fund case competitions that provide a financial incentive for teams of students to brainstorm effective solutions for the most pressing issues affecting the communities they live in.
Traditional case competitions offer a theoretical proposal that students are tasked with solving. However, the Impact Competition aims to solve local, real-world issues, and provides the funding for the students to see their solution in action. Like when Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business partnered with local Non Profit Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County, The students came up with an innovative housing solution to help Habitat’s mission.
In this episode, you will find out how this exact case worked, as well as how The Impact Competition got started in the first place.
You will hear 3 voices that all played their part in filling that first idea of the Impact Competition with life, action and impact.
Seeing the big impact one idea can have
Meet Lance Breitstein, a graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business who spent over a decade as one of the best short term equity traders on Wall Street. At 32 he retired to start The Impact Competition.
The Impact Competition funds case competitions which challenge students to find solutions for a different local non-profit each year. Students then implement the solutions using the Impact Competitions seed money. The Impact Competition currently runs this program for example at Indiana University, University of Maryland, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins and more to come.
Essentially they are turning students into future donors, volunteers, and philanthropists while helping local non-profits in the process.
Why not me?
This is what Lance asked himself as he started to share his idea with others. One of the first people who heard about his idea was Wendi Goodlett, back then she was working with the Kelley School of Business but has since taken on the role as President and Chief Executive Officer of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County.
Wendi worked as a volunteer on the construction site through the Women Build program of Habitat for Humanity for 11 years prior to joining the staff.
She is committed to providing access to affordable and sustainable homeownership opportunities for underserved populations, while building community and engaging people in Habitat’s mission.
As the Impact Competition went into its first inaugural round at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County was selected as the beneficiary receiving seed money to implement the solutions that the competing students came up with.
Empowering NGO’s not just with advice but hands-on support
It wasn’t easy to pick the winning idea, as the students came up with many great suggestions that all had the potential to help Habitat to realise their vision world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Actually implementing change
Shawna Meyer-Niederman, Associate Director at the Kelley Institute for Social Impact at Indiana University, saw the project through from the university’s side and facilitated the competition on campus.
“Working with the Impact Competition is a highlight of my job because I get to see students empowered to be thoughtful, confident, and smart and partner agencies enabled to actually implement change. I’ve been an undervalued student and I’ve been an under-resourced nonprofit. The Impact Competition really brings out the best of the best.”
Shawna Meyer-Niederman
The winning team came up with a tiny home concept leveraging on the comparatively cheap material and construction costs of a shipping container. Everyone involved was excited to get started with the implementation. Due to Covid the timeline had to be adjusted, but as they are getting ready for Charlie and their family to move in to their home now, the project has come full circle.
From idea to real-life impact
Lance calls this one of his proudest moments, seeing their first competition’s solution, dedicated to Charlie Lynn in Bloomington, come to fruition.
“Although I’ve put a lot of work into getting better and becoming a better person, my living situation has been a constant barrier. A safe, affordable house isn’t just an object or a property for me. It is a promise of the opportunity to live a better life and create my future self. This is my lifelong and ultimate dream.” Charlie Lynn
The ripple effect
“I truly believe that a decision, idea or action that impacts one person is worthwhile and has ripple effects that we may not be able to measure. Each one of those impacts counts toward the global goals of SDG. If you care about adding to that positive impact, I would encourage you to know where your actions fit in with SDG – let them guide your decisions, your business model, who you hire, where you invest your money.”
Wendi Goodlett
Press play to eavesdrop on Lance, Wendi and Shawna as they share openly about the hurdles they had to overcome and the mindset that is needed to make a difference in this world. It will give you new perspectives on how you, yes YOU, can start to make your own impact too.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or any of your favorite Podcast players.
In this episode you get:
- 03:14 – Biggest learnings from Wall Street supporting Lance’s philanthropy work today
- 05:09 – The objective of the Impact Competition
- 06:45 – Busted assumptions of a Wall street capitalist
- 09:30 – How Lance came up with The Impact Competition idea
- 12:16 – Success story from their first competition
- 15:28 – Wendi shares details about the solution the winning students team came up with
- 17:07 – What happened when the world shut down due to Covid and how Habitat picked up the work
- 19:44 – Shawna shares about the impact the competition has on her students
- 22:21 – How the supported NGOs get empowered not just with advice but with hands-on support implementing the solutions
- 24:29 – The moment Wendi first heard Lance share about his idea
- 28:20 – Challenges Wendi faces as she communicates Habitat’s impact to others
- 33:20 – Something Lance tweeted in July 2022
- 34:10 – What the failure rate in trading has to do with making an impact
- 40:52 – The impact the case competitions made on the stakeholders involved
- 42:59 – Scaling the impact competition moving forward
Resources
Connect with Lance Breitstein and The Impact Competition
Lance mentioned the book “The life you can save” on the Podcast. You can get a free copy of the book here https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book/
Connect with Wendi Goodlett and Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County
- https://www.facebook.com/monroecountyhabitat
- https://www.instagram.com/habitatmonroeco/
- https://www.instagram.com/wendileigh16/
- https://www.facebook.com/wendi.goodlett
Connect with Shawna Meyer-Niederman and the Kelley School of Business at University of Indiana
Other episodes you’ll enjoy:
- In the business to inspire
- A world where everyone has a decent place to live
- The Sustainable Development Goals – what they are & why they matter
Connect with us
Connect with the #impact team on Instagram @hashtagimpact or just send us an email at hello@hashtagimpact.com
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